


Not right, without you

by tray_la_la



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-14
Updated: 2010-01-14
Packaged: 2017-10-06 07:16:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/51084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tray_la_la/pseuds/tray_la_la
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Albus was always different.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not right, without you

~

Albus was fifteen when his best friend stopped talking to him. It was a Tuesday, sometime in the middle of fall term, when Albus walked into the common room and Scorpius got up and left. Albus tried to corner him later on – after Charms class, in the Great Hall during lunch – but he was rebuffed time and again. So Albus cast a locking charm on the door to the fifth year dormitory and spent the evening getting angry.

There was a glass bottle full of sand sitting on Albus' night table. Scorpius had brought it back for him from his trip to Greece the summer before. Albus picked it up and rolled it between his palms, watching the white grains run around the inside of the glass. Then he threw it on the ground and watched it shatter, promising to never be sorry for holding hands with a boy.

~

Albus was seven, playing outside at Little Wizards day care, when he stepped on a grasshopper. It made a terrible crackling sound as it was crushed beneath the bottom of his shoe, even worse than the squishing noise it made when he tried to scrape it off on the asphalt. He lifted his foot, saw the decimated grasshopper mashed into the gravel, and started to cry.

Albus tried to run away, but the other boys circled around him, laughing and pushing him closer to the grasshopper's demolished remains. The teacher, Mr Woodbury, finally called them off. He knelt down and let Albus hold onto him for a long time, until his tears turned to sniffles and hiccups and Albus just stayed there, clutching onto his jumper.

~

Albus was twelve when he first fell in love. It happened in the spring, during his first year at Hogwarts, when the weather was finally nice enough to spend the afternoons out on the grounds. He was lying in the tall grass on the far edge of the lake, along with James and some other Gryffindor second years, enjoying the feel of the warm sun on his face.

He plucked a grape from the bunch James and his friends had nicked from the kitchens and popped it into his mouth, plotting how to find out the password. That's when the other boys laughed at a joke Albus hadn't caught and Frankie Longbottom turned to him, ruffling his hand in Albus' hair. "A lion in snake's clothing," he said, and the other boys laughed more. Albus looked up into Frankie's round, kind face and smiled.

~

Albus was nineteen when he got fucked for the first time. He was at the Burrow, celebrating his father's forty-fifth birthday, when Seamus Finnigan cornered him coming out of the loo. He shoved Albus inside and bent him over the sink, reaching around to unzip his fly, and Albus thought about all the excuses he'd made over the years. It had got easier once he'd left Hogwarts; the guys he stumbled home with from the pub rarely asked any questions.

The sex didn't last long, and as Albus righted his t-shirt and did up his trousers, all he could think about was sitting though the rest of the party with this man's spunk still inside him. Seamus just smiled and laid a hand on his shoulder, the other already wrapped around the doorknob. "I hope you had the time of your life, kid, because I'll only ever be drunk and stupid enough to do this once."

~

Albus was twenty-two when he dropped out of the Auror corps and fucked off to Europe with some bloke he'd met in London. It was the middle of the night when Albus finally left him, slipping from the single sheet they'd been sleeping underneath and Apparating back to his flat off of Diagon Alley. Albus headed straight for the shower, not bothering to turn on any of the lights. He was suddenly desperate to be rid of the humid Amsterdam summer.

Albus shut the faucet off and groped blindly along the wall for a towel, just as the lights flickered to life and Albus had to blink against the sudden brightness, shielding his eyes with one arm. Scorpius was standing in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest and a towel dangling from one hand. "Where the fuck have you been for the past two months?" He made no move to hand Albus the towel. "I had to find out from your father that you'd taken off with some guy after you didn't come back to the flat for a week." Albus said nothing, and Scorpius sighed and handed over the towel. "Well, next time you leave, say goodbye."

Albus wrapped it around his waist and looked up, his expression sincere. "Next time I leave, I'll just take you with me."

~

Albus was seventeen when he realised he was in love with his best friend. He and Scorpius had just finished at Hogwarts and they were moving in together. Scorpius had been so happy when Albus suggested it, and there was an edge of surprise to it that Albus couldn't understand, as though Scorpius expected Albus would just leave him behind.

That first night in the flat, after they'd said goodnight and headed off to their separate bedrooms, that's when Albus really knew. _I could never go on without you._

~


End file.
